1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to techniques for establishing a dial-up connection to a network. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for establishing a dial-up connection to a network through a mobile communication device.
2. Background Art
A computing device, such as laptop or desktop computer, can use a dial-up connection to advantageously access the Internet or other networks through a mobile device. The mobile device can be, for example, a cellular telephone that can transmit and receive data over a cellular network. Thus, a dial-up connection can allow a user to conveniently access the Internet over a wide variety of locations. Moreover, the advent of high-speed and low-cost wireless communication technologies, such as Bluetooth, has significantly increased the number of users that utilize dial-up connections to access the Internet through their mobile devices.
However, when a user of a computing device desires to establish a dial-up connection to a network through a mobile device, the user is required to begin by establishing a communication link (e.g., a Bluetooth communication link) with the mobile device, and then manually configuring a dial-up connection entry (also referred to in the art as a “dial-up connection profile”) in the operating system of the computing device and network connection settings in the mobile device. For example, the user may need to configure GPRS settings in the mobile phone, and configure a dial-up connection entry in the computing device. Today, the user is required to manually populate several fields with network specific information, such as a dial string for connecting to the network, a user name, a password, and an Access Point Name (“APN”). Such manual configuration of the mobile phone and a dial-up connection entry is extremely difficult for novice users, and even very inconvenient to knowledgeable users.